Tag Archives | CNN

American pundits spend a good deal of their time pondering partisan intensity, and how it has sharply increased over the years. At some point in such discussions, it is traditional to note that the sorting of America into ever-more flinty conservatives and ever-more liberal progressives has coincided with the rise of cable television and the internet. The problem, it is asserted, is that too many Americans consume their news from inside an echo chamber that reflects their existing prejudices. Oh, for the time when the nation settled down around the TV to watch the network news from Walter Cronkite and his peers, who delivered a broadly centrist diet of news from home and abroad in a tone of take-your-medicine seriousness.

Some of that hand-wringing is to the point. Attend Republican or Democratic campaign rallies, and you certainly hear the same talking points from many activists there, and many of those soundbites and factoids come from cable, talk radio and the same handful of partisan blogs.

On this episode of Breaking the Set, Abby Martin talks to Larry King, host of RT’s Politicking, about his views on what journalism should be, and how they are different from what ‘Breaking the Set’ presents.

The bizarre logic of religion at work on cable news, as (presumably comfortably-sheltered) CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer awkwardly insists an Oklahoma woman "thank the Lord" after her home has just been destroyed by a devastating tornado:

CNN's ratings have been truly terrible in the last few years, so recently parent company Time Warner decided to make NBC reject Jeff Zucker the new head of the network, presumably to bring back the crowds. Whether or not it was Zucker who decided that the answer to the network's boring programming was to invite Texas radio host Alex Jones onto Piers Morgan's evening show I don't know, but it certainly made for some compelling viewing. Who do you think came off worst?

On this episode of Breaking the Set, Abby Martin talks about Obama the 'Drone King's' kill list which one official has called a macabre "baseball card" set of "terrorists" and a discusses the dangers of Obama's drone wars. Abby then interviews former CNN Investigative Reporter, Amber Lyon, about CNN's corrupt media empire, calling into question a media establishment where censorship can be bought.

Abby Martin brings up the issue of global surveillance and drone warfare and talks to NIAC Policy Director Jamal Abdi about the possibility of war with Iran. MSNBC is called out for political bias, and RT Producer Ramon Galindo speaks about the impending doom of nuclear reactors built by fault lines. She breaks down the corruption of the NYPD and asks: why are they bringing their criminal enterprise to Tel Aviv, Israel?

CNN reporter Dana Bash receives some choice words from Ron Paul supporters who object to her consistently negative and biased coverage of Dr. Paul during the 2012 presidential primary race. The title of this film references the blowback that Sean Hannity received during the 2008 race. No actual snowballs were thrown.

Saturday Night Live's Seth Meyers gave a speech at this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner, targeting GOP candidates, Donald Trump, VP Joe Biden and the President. While he received quite a few laughs, some guests (i.e. Trump) were less than amused:

Ah, cable news. 2011 has brought a wealth of incredible, transformative, and tragic events around the globe, but the mainstream media will have to hold off on covering that until after royal wedding season. The Atlantic Wire notes the figure, mentioned in passing in a Wall Street Journal story:

This crazy statistic comes from the Wall Street Journal’s Amy Chozick and Cecile Rohwedder, who discovered, as proof of the media madness that will be Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding, “CNN alone will have a team of roughly 400 reporters, cameramen and crew assigned to the wedding.” To compare: A group of just 50 CNN employees, one-eighth the size of the anticipated wedding fleet, are currently on the ground in Japan covering the aftermath of the earthquake and the continuing nuclear containment problem.

CNN isn’t the only network with such disproportionately big plans for the royal wedding. On the day of the earthquake, Technolayer reported that NBC News sent four anchors and correspondents to join the staff at its Tokyo Bureau.